Letter Writing Sunday #17

This week’s letter comes via Sokari over at Black Looks. I think Sokari has said it well enough, so here are her words:

The horrific events taking place in Uganda should be a wakeup call for everyone. People may think that they are safe from harassment and arrest because they are heterosexual. Not so, a witch hunt affects everyone irrespective of their sexuality. Your neighbour takes a disliking to you and before you know it you are being accused of being gay or a lesbian. People may think this is not their problem because they are not Ugandans. Think again, it happened in Cameroon, its happening in Ghana right now and with the new laws in Nigeria it may soon happen there. The fundamental human rights of African citizens are slowly being eroded in Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Cameroon as religious extremists and repressive governments join in a pact against freedoms.

Today Red Pepper went ahead with the threat to out Ugandan lesbians.

“Give us the name of the lesbian in your neighbourhood and we will shame her”

All over the blogosphere I read the talk, the theories of this that and the other on race, on gender, on sexuality, on feminism. The human rights violations that are taking place in Uganda and elsewhere are not theory but reality. A reality that has today destroyed the lives of men and women in Uganda and in whose name? Religion and Repression – homosexuality is touted as being unAfrican but Chrisitainity, Islam, Repression and Bigotry are?

Some background into the present gay hunt taking place in Uganda.

For close to two years, Human Rights Watch said, officials have regularly threatened and harassed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Ugandans. In October 2004, the country’s information minister, James Nsaba Buturo, ordered police to investigate and “take appropriate action against” a gay association allegedly organized at Uganda’s Makerere University.

State-owned media have repeatedly called for stronger measures against homosexual conduct. On July 6, 2005, a writer in the government-owned New Vision newspaper urged authorities to crack down on homosexuality, saying, “The police should visit the holes mentioned in the press, spy on the perverts, arrest and prosecute them. Relevant government departments must outlaw or restrict websites, magazines, newspapers and television channels promoting immorality – including homosexuality, lesbianism, pornography, etc.” Later that month, local government officers raided the home of Victor Mukasa, a lesbian activist and Chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda. They seized documents and other materials, and arrested another lesbian activist and held her overnight.

On September 29, 2005, President Museveni signed into law a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The amendment says that “marriage is lawful only if entered into between a man and a woman,” and specifies that “it is unlawful for same-sex couples to marry.” A parliamentary spokesperson said at the time that criminal penalties for engaging in such marriages would be imposed later.

The government has also silenced discussion of gay and lesbian rights and lives. The Broadcasting Council, a board of government censors, fined a radio station 1.8 million shillings (more than US$1000) for hosting a lesbian and two gay men on a talk show, where they protested against discrimination and called for repeal of the sodomy laws. In February 2005, the Media Council – a state censorship board – banned a staging of the play, “The Vagina Monologues,” by the U.S. author Eve Ensler, because it “promotes illegal acts of unnatural sexual acts, homosexuality and prostitution.

Men named in the Red Pepper’s August 8 article have reportedly already been threatened and harassed. Ugandan activists point out that, in a deeply patriarchal society, accusations against alleged lesbians could subject them to violence in the family and community. U.N. statistics in 2000 showed that 41 percent of Ugandan women had suffered domestic violence.

A March 2005 Human Rights Watch report on “abstinence-until-marriage” HIV programs in Uganda found these programs were denying young people accurate information on HIV transmission and on sexual health. These programs also intrinsically discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. With a legal ban in place against gay or lesbian relationships, the programs promote only permanent abstinence and are uniformly silent about safer sexual practices. Promoting abstinence until heterosexual marriage is the continuation of an outright denial by the Ugandan government that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people exist. In March 2002, while accepting an award for his country’s HIV/AIDS prevention programs, President Museveni said simply, “We don’t have homosexuals in Uganda.”

“Uganda’s once-successful HIV/AIDS prevention programs are already reeling from the impact of silence and bad science,” said Stern. “Driving vulnerable people underground can only hamper those programs further.”

There are different ways people can help and it is important that as many Africans as possible take action. Since time is running out, the most efficient action would be to call directly the editor of Red Pepper in Uganda:
Arinaitwe Rugyendo; Tel: +256 712 973 077, +256 772 760 106, +256 312 279410

The journalist who wrote the article with the list of names is called Denis Sabiiti. You can call him on +256 312 26 1813.

You can also send a protest to the editor’s. Email rugyendo@mail.redpepper.co.ug